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The Marvel Multiverse seems to be inconsistent in its inclusion of officially recognised continuities, or their Universe designation number at least.

The wiki could of course be lacking in information, but it appears as though many filmic representations of their characters are yet to be 'officiated' by means of receiving a continuity designation: which plays an important role in establishing canon, and is essential to the synergy of the brand.

The MCU has its own designation (which I am discussing over on M&TV), but there seems to be no representation for Non-Marvel Studios properties such as Blade (any of the Movies or the TV Series), Ghost Rider or even the X-Men and Spiderman franchises.

Can we reasonably infer from this that the Marvel Comic books are using Universe designation as a way of accrediting Canonical significance to particular properties, and thus creating a synergetic relationship between the output of Marvel Studios and Marvel comics?

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    "is essential to the synergy of the brand" - without it, the brand could lose as many as 20 synergy points!
    – Paul D. Waite
    Feb 7, 2014 at 16:31

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Funny, I was trying to dig up the designations for the cinematic Spider-Man and X-Men continuities and ran into this just the other day.

Can we reasonably infer from this that the Marvel Comic books are using Universe designation as a way of accrediting Canonical significance to particular properties, and thus creating a synergetic relationship between the output of Marvel Studios and Marvel comics?

Yes, this is the most logical explanation.

Since Marvel has no legal or creative control over these continuities, it makes a fair amount of sense not assign them official designations. If the movies do something completely wacky, Marvel can essentially treat them as old "What If" comics and point out that since they're not part of any official canon, it doesn't matter. Though, it certainly causes confusion for those who don't keep up with which studios own the rights to which cinematic versions of the characters.

What will make things even more confusing is the fact that rights for Ghost Rider, Daredevil, and The Punisher have recently reverted back to Marvel.

It can be noted that some of the universes do have designations, just nothing officially recognized by Marvel and have no official pages or mention on Marvel Universe.

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  • Do you believe the lack of designation is purely for canon reasons, or do you think there is an angle with financial synergy across properties at play here too?
    – John Smith Optional
    Feb 7, 2014 at 15:01
  • @JohnSmithOptional Interesting question that I can't quite put my finger on. I lean towards pure canonical reasons as synergy exists financially solely by the name connections. People watch an X-Men movie and then want to go read the X-Men comics. Marvel has almost no reason to want to try to purposefully create a disconnect except to help people understand just why the comic vs movie versions of characters are so different.
    – phantom42
    Feb 7, 2014 at 15:12
  • At least according to the wiki on Earth-616, the former Editor in Chief and executive Editor both hate the terms and don't use them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth-616
    – JohnP
    Feb 7, 2014 at 15:14
  • @JohnP, Yeah, I remember reading that too. But the designation has been used in the comics. I believe it was one of the issues of Uncanny X-Force when they travel to the Otherworld.
    – phantom42
    Feb 7, 2014 at 15:16
  • I like your answer! I'm going to wait and see if there's any official proof/recognition of this strategy though...
    – John Smith Optional
    Feb 7, 2014 at 15:35

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